History of the Householder Symposia
The Householder Symposia originated in a series of meetings organized by Alston Householder, Director of the Mathematics Division of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Ford Professor at the University of Tennessee (Householder's biography in the MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive). These international meetings were devoted to matrix computations and linear algebra and were held in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. They had a profound influence on the subject.
The last "Gatlinburg" conference was held in 1969 on the occasion of Householder's retirement. At the time, it was decided to continue the meetings but vary the place. Since then meetings have been held at three year intervals in a variety of venues.
The meetings, which last for five days, are restricted to about 125 people. They are intensive, with plenary talks in the day and special sessions in the evenings. To encourage people to talk about work in progress, no proceedings are published, although extended abstracts are circulated. The response of the participants to the meetings has been uniformly enthusiastic.
The conferences are run in tandem by a permanent organizing committee and a local arrangements committee. Although attendance is restricted, anyone – including students – can apply. Selection is made by the organizing committee, generally by ballot.
The meeting is also the occasion for the award of the Householder prize for the best thesis in numerical linear algebra. This prize is entirely (and well) supported by contributions solicited at the Symposium banquet.
Here is a complete list of the previous symposia:
Number | Year | Place | Organized by |
---|---|---|---|
I | 1961 | Gatlinburg, USA | A. S. Householder |
II | 1963 | Gatlinburg, USA | A. S. Householder, F. W. J. Olver |
III | 1964 | Gatlinburg, USA (Photo) | A. S. Householder |
IV | 1969 | Gatlinburg, USA | A. S. Householder |
V | 1972 | Los Alamos, USA | R. S. Varga |
VI | 1974 | Hopfen am See, BRD | F. L. Bauer |
VII | 1977 | Asilomar, USA (Photo collection) | G. H. Golub |
VIII | 1981 | Oxford, ENGLAND | L. Fox, J. H. Wilkinson |
IX | 1984 | Waterloo, CANADA | J. A. George |
X | 1987 | Fairfield Glade, USA | R. C. Ward, G. W. Stewart |
XI | 1990 | Tylosand, SWEDEN | A. Bjorck |
XII | 1993 | Lake Arrowhead, USA (Photo) | T. F. Chan, G. H. Golub |
XIII | 1996 | Pontresina, SWITZERLAND | W. Gander, M. H. Gutknecht, D. P. O'Leary |
XIV | 1999 | Whistler, B.C., CANADA | J. M. Varah, G. W. Stewart |
XV | 2002 | Peebles, SCOTLAND (Photo collection, Mark Embree's report) | P. Knight, A. Ramage, A. Wathen, N. J. Higham |
XVI | 2005 | Seven Springs, USA (Photo collection) | J. Barlow, D. Szyld, H. Zha, C. Van Loan |
XVII | 2008 | Zeuthen, GERMANY | J.Liesen, V. Mehrmann, R. Nabben, A. Bunse-Gerstner |
At Householder XIII in Pontresina, Switzerland, F. L. (Fritz) Bauer gave an after-banquet talk, remembering the Symposium's namesake, and the early history of the meetings. Click here for Bauer's notes for the talk (posted in NA Digest, July 18, 1996, vol. 96, no. 27).